No. 6 Heidelberg Finishes Fifth at National Duals

While competing amongst the top wrestling teams in the nation at the National Wrestling Coaches Association / Cliff Keen National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa, no. 6 Heidelberg College proved its mettle by placing fifth. The men went 4-1 on the weekend, beating no. 19 Cornell College 30-13, no. 7 Coe College 21-18, Ohio Northern University 32-15, and no. 5 Luther College 25-14. Their only loss came in the quarterfinals against no. 3 University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, to whom they fell 24-12. Overall, Heidelberg’s dual record for the year stands at 8-1.

Going undefeated for the Berg was Joe Pflug (Maple Heights, Ohio / Maple Heights) at 157 pounds and Ryan Bowers (Lima, Ohio / Elida) at heavyweight. Pflug went 5-0 by beating Aron Kindelsperger of Cornell 10-6, no. 9 Jay Milz of UW-LaCrosse 10-3, Bryon Grothus of Coe 4-2, Luke Miller of ONU 11-5, and Danny Fornoff of Luther 12-3. Bowers defeated no. 6 Dan Laurent of UW-L 4-3 and pinned Josiah Payne of Cornell in 1:49 and Jared Carder of Coe in 3:18 for a 3-0 record on the weekend.

No. 5 Ryan Fogliano (Maple Heights, Ohio / Maple Heights) and Nick Sanchez (Lima, Ohio / Bath) went 3-1 and 4-1 respectively for the Berg, while no. 10 Boomer Fechko (Brunswick, Ohio / Brunswick) finished the weekend at 2-2.

“I am very pleased with how we wrestled,” commented head coach Jason Miller, “It is the first time I have really seen our team step up and out-wrestle national competition as a whole.”

The Student Princes return to action on Friday, January 18 in Tiffin, Ohio for an Ohio Athletic Conference match-up against Ohio Northern University. Wrestling begins at 7:30 p.m.